Domingos Maria das Dores Soares

Domingos Maria das Dores Soares (fighting name: Koli , Coli ) was Indonesian government president (Bupati) of the Dili district during the crisis in East Timor in 1999 . In the end of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, he acted as head of an umbrella organization that included several pro-Indonesian militias (Wanra) .

Career

Soares completed a postgraduate law degree at Airlangga University . He is often described as a young intellectual. In the 1990s he regularly represented the Indonesian position at events on the subject of "East Timor". After completing his studies, Soares received the post of mayor of East Timor's capital Dili and later of the Bupatis of the entire Dili district. 1997 Soares failed against José Abílio Osório Soares in the candidacy for the governor post of Timor Timur , as East Timor was called by the Indonesians as a province.

On January 27, 1999, Indonesia's President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie announced that the East Timorese could vote in a referendum on the status of their country. On the same day Soares was appointed head of the Forum Persatuan, Demokrasi das Keadilan (FPDK, German  Forum Unity, Democracy & Justice ), an umbrella organization that should represent Indonesian interests. The FPDK was close to the government and had branches in all 13 districts of East Timor. These were well equipped and mostly under the leadership of the Bupatis or the district secretaries. They were financed from the government budget. The forum also included militias (Milisia Pro-Otonomi) , but in practice they were led by the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) down to the level of the sub-districts . Soares does not seem to have any direct responsibility for the violence emanating from the militias in the context of the referendum, but he was responsible for its organization and financing. On April 17th, in the presence of Domingos Soares and Provincial Governor José Abílio Osório Soares, the militias held a rally calling for the capture and killing of those who oppose the integration of East Timor into Indonesia. Subsequently, the militias marauding through Dili under their leader Eurico Guterres . At least 19 people were killed in the massacre at Manuel Carrascalão's house . Indonesian security forces were also involved here. Two days later, Eurico Guterres was appointed Chief of the Civil Guard ( Pam swakarsa in Indonesian ) by Domingos Soares .

On May 11, Soares attended a secret meeting of the militia chiefs, local military chiefs, the secret service and the police, at which plans to commit violent acts against independence activists were discussed. The initiator was the Commander in Chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces in East Timor, Colonel Tono Suratman . Soares and Armindo Soares Mariano , the East Timorese head of the Golkar state party, took over the organization .

In June 1999 the FPDK merged with the Barisan Rakyat Timor Timur BRTT, an organization founded on April 30th under the leadership of the diplomat Lopez da Cruz. Behind the BRTT were General Wiranto , Commander in Chief of the Indonesian Army, and Foreign Minister Ali Alatas . The new organization called the United Front for East Timor (UNIF) was under the joint leadership of Soares and Lopez da Cruz. João da Costa Tavares commanded the UNIF militias.

A few days before the referendum on August 30, Soares invited the local chiefs of the Dili district to a meeting. Dili's mayor Mateus Maia stated that if the majority of the citizens did not vote for the autonomy of East Timor within Indonesia, “blood would flow into Dili”. The majority of the population opted for the complete independence of East Timor. After the results were published on September 4th, the pro-Indonesian militias marched through the city, pillaging and killing. At least 67 people died and around half of the buildings were damaged.

On September 20, the International Armed Forces East Timor (INTERFET) landed in Dili to restore order and quiet. Indonesia's security forces withdrew from East Timor. On the same day Soares became the head of an organization that was officially founded on February 5, 2000 as Uni Timor Aswain (UNTAS) in Kupang, West Timor . The organization continues to claim East Timor as part of Indonesia and became the political base of the militia officers and was later represented with three seats in the National Council set up by the UN administration . Soares persistently rejected the referendum result. In public, however, he rejected the violence of the militias and denied acts of violence by militias that were subordinate to him, or he denied the existence of such militias. He described the administration by the United Nations as "colonialism" and the foreign, mostly Western troops as "albinos".

In December 1999, Soares was interviewed by the East Timor Human Rights Abuses Commission (KPP-HAM) set up by the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (KOMNASHAM). However, in May 2000 he refused to appear for questioning by the Indonesian Attorney General. Soares was originally advertised for prosecution, but was struck off the wanted list by the Public Prosecutor's Office in May 2000 without any public justification.

Others

Soares is married to the daughter of Arnaldo dos Reis Araújo , the president of the Associação Popular Democrática Timorense (APODETI), which sought to join East Timor to Indonesia at the end of the colonial period.

See also

• History of East Timor

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Masters of Terror: Domingos Maria das Dores Soares ( Memento of the original from August 29, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 27, 2017. 
2. ↑ Dili District Development Plan 2002/2003 ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English; PDF file; 460 kB)